The lingering but largely covert fight between the Presidency and National Assembly is unwarranted and could have been avoided early in the life of this administration. It is a collective national loss that the crisis affected and continues to affect the average Nigerian negatively.
A lot of opportunities for strengthening governance and the democratic experience since President Buhari came to power in May 2015 have been lost.
Judging from the President’s anti-corruption and pro-masses stance since he forayed into party politics in 2002, one would have expected a better deal. What do I mean? Buhari ought to have used all available templates and strategies to empower the masses, “the ruled” class.
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In the last 16 years of the PDP, one can state that the power of the people have been stolen from them in broad daylight by the powerful collusion of the central and state governments. Through there is an enabling laws establishing state independent electoral commission (SIEC) in each of the 36 states.
In 1999, INEC, the central electoral umpire, conducted all elections and a level playing field for all candidates across all the then political parties was given. Hence, it was possible for the real “talakawas” to have voted for their immediate political leaders at the local government level, without much interference from the emperors-styled governors.
The leaders voted to serve in the local councils knew where their mandate came from, and served the people with compassion and inclusion.
Therefore, it was possible to find local council chairs from opposition parties in a given state, because the masses truly decided to choose their leaders according to their free will and a convincing manifesto.
After 1999, the masses have never had it better again. All of us are at the mercy of the governors, including the popular pro-masses President himself now. It is a fact that a state governor unilaterally decides all the local council chairmen, councillors, state house of assembly and National Assembly members from his state.
The will of the people doesn’t count – not even in Kaduna State where the opposition PDP won 3 local council seats recently.
The lingering political question of who will rightly restore our stolen mandate remains relevant to date. Certainly, it will not come from our governors.
Arguably, a politically minded president and the National Assembly remain the best undertaker of restoring the people’s mandate. It is in this regard I expect President Buhari to have swiftly run the show early in the beginning of the regime.
He would have emancipated his decades old assured constituency, the masses, by befriending the leadership and members of the National Assembly in the early days of his ascension to power. It does not matter if Buhari’s views, ethical and political backgrounds sharply differ with those of his new-found allies.
Invariably, he should have looked at the bigger goal: building a nation and its people. It is now undoubtedly clear to the President and his handlers that he needs more of political expediency to bring succour to the masses he so much profess to love, and that cannot happen in isolation of the other key players.
Optimistically, I had expected Buhari to have used that best political opportunity of existing and emerging friction and discord between most National Assembly members and their state governors by sending a bill to amend/scrape the state independent electoral commissions.
That would have reduce the unwarranted grip governors have over the people and politicians, and would have set the stage for total liberation of the masses, vis-a-vis consolidating democracy.
It is still not late for President Buhari to undertake this pro-masses step when he comes back in 2019. However, it would have been easier for the President to have successfully got the nod of the National Assembly members he helped to get elected or re-elected on the altar of his popularity, than a National Assembly we are yet to see.
Mr Abdullahi lives at No. 73, Tamburawa, Kafin Hausa, Jigawa State. He can be reached at 08030850094
